“I just feel like [restaurants’] data collection often supersedes your pleasure.”
This kiiiiiills me as both a former operator and as a hospitality tech builder. Let me reframe this. I have a long list of food allergies. When a host asks for my phone number, I am overjoyed that I won't have to dictate my list of allergies to my server because it'll come up on my profile. Same thing if my profile had details like "always drinks sparkling water" or "prefers bar seats to a table". Thinking of a guest profile as a background/income check is underestimating it's hospitality value. Technology can be a tool to provide great hospitality.
In reality, this disconnect between the host stand and my server has happened so frequently that I started printing out business-like cards that list my allergies. Every single time I hand them to a server they say "Wow, this is such a great idea thank you so much". Listen... I'm glad they're not going to serve me something I'm allergic to but it's also ridiculous that I've actually built this "feature" twice; one with tech, and one physically (and at my own expense) as a backstop. And the backstop always wins. Are we as an industry comfortable admitting that it is too much to hold a team accountable to communicating between a host stand and the floor?
Such a perfectly nuanced comment. As a patron, not someone part of the restaurant industry, it always comes down to how the tech is used (or abused), as opposed to the tech itself.
It comes down to giving the patron a choice about how their data is used — and whether they want to be interacted with an app. For example, I know a lot of people are offended when they have to share their phone number with a host to enter into Resy when they just want to sit down anonymously.
There needs to be that flexibility to allow people to "opt-out." Coercion only works so far and for so long. People should feel like they're actually getting a benefit for sharing their information. For example, maybe offer someone a glass of sparkling wine or a personal "happy hour" in exchange for their phone number.
As for me, it's not too big a deal to share my info. But there have been times when the line was crossed.
With anything in dining, there's finest of lines between being solicitous and creepy.
For example, my wife and I visited a fine dining establishment a few months ago. As we sat down, the manager, who I never met before, came over to our table and noted, "Ohhhh, it's been six long months since you were last here!" I felt like it was a needy relative asking why I keep ignoring invitations to holiday dinners!
A simple "it is so good to have you back" would have more than sufficed.
But it's easy to blame the tech, because without some sensitivity, the short-sighted non-thinking of, "just because we can" rather than "doesn't mean we should" is often too tempting to margin-squeezed proprietors.
Ultimately, restaurants figure out what patrons will tolerate and what they won't. And the ones who know how to apply it in the most helpful, patron-friendly will be the ones who win.
“I just feel like [restaurants’] data collection often supersedes your pleasure.”
This kiiiiiills me as both a former operator and as a hospitality tech builder. Let me reframe this. I have a long list of food allergies. When a host asks for my phone number, I am overjoyed that I won't have to dictate my list of allergies to my server because it'll come up on my profile. Same thing if my profile had details like "always drinks sparkling water" or "prefers bar seats to a table". Thinking of a guest profile as a background/income check is underestimating it's hospitality value. Technology can be a tool to provide great hospitality.
In reality, this disconnect between the host stand and my server has happened so frequently that I started printing out business-like cards that list my allergies. Every single time I hand them to a server they say "Wow, this is such a great idea thank you so much". Listen... I'm glad they're not going to serve me something I'm allergic to but it's also ridiculous that I've actually built this "feature" twice; one with tech, and one physically (and at my own expense) as a backstop. And the backstop always wins. Are we as an industry comfortable admitting that it is too much to hold a team accountable to communicating between a host stand and the floor?
Such a perfectly nuanced comment. As a patron, not someone part of the restaurant industry, it always comes down to how the tech is used (or abused), as opposed to the tech itself.
It comes down to giving the patron a choice about how their data is used — and whether they want to be interacted with an app. For example, I know a lot of people are offended when they have to share their phone number with a host to enter into Resy when they just want to sit down anonymously.
There needs to be that flexibility to allow people to "opt-out." Coercion only works so far and for so long. People should feel like they're actually getting a benefit for sharing their information. For example, maybe offer someone a glass of sparkling wine or a personal "happy hour" in exchange for their phone number.
As for me, it's not too big a deal to share my info. But there have been times when the line was crossed.
With anything in dining, there's finest of lines between being solicitous and creepy.
For example, my wife and I visited a fine dining establishment a few months ago. As we sat down, the manager, who I never met before, came over to our table and noted, "Ohhhh, it's been six long months since you were last here!" I felt like it was a needy relative asking why I keep ignoring invitations to holiday dinners!
A simple "it is so good to have you back" would have more than sufficed.
But it's easy to blame the tech, because without some sensitivity, the short-sighted non-thinking of, "just because we can" rather than "doesn't mean we should" is often too tempting to margin-squeezed proprietors.
Ultimately, restaurants figure out what patrons will tolerate and what they won't. And the ones who know how to apply it in the most helpful, patron-friendly will be the ones who win.